Explore

Monday, September 9, 2013

It's Monday Morning - How About Scribing an Art Inspired Poem... or not?

I confessed last week I haven’t written much poetry this
year. I had fabulous intentions but the muse left the building in some sort of
huff and my words were no longer warming up in the bullpen like they normally
do. They seemed to have been put out to pasture to really mix metaphors and be
frightfully annoying to myself.

One of the spaces where my words did continually appear was
from visual art prompts from my friend, Tess Kincaid, at “The Mag” or Magpie
Tales on Blogger.

I was thinking about this today, remembering back to looking
at a display of pottery at the Getty Museum, a field trip chaperone for my
daughter, Katherine’s then sixth grade class. She is now a senior in college,
so it has been a while. The tour guide

started talking about Keats and his “Ode
to a Grecian Urn.” I enjoyed it, but as Morgan said in her OctPoWriMo blog post yesterday,
sometimes I got stuck in the molasses feel of the 19th Century
phrasing and language.

Somehow the images Tess uses as prompts speak to me with a
directness I wasn’t “hearing” via language.

I read about ekphrastic poetry (poetry inspired by art) at the website poets.org and it
said, "Modern ekphrastic poems have generally shrugged off antiquity's
obsession with elaborate description, and instead have tried to interpret,
inhabit, confront, and speak to their subjects. “ Yes! That’s what I do, that’s
what I experience.

I have facilitated writing sessions at Art Shows and the
writers always create new insights from choosing a work of art and “becoming
intimate” with it, which is how I think of getting to know a work of art by
spending time with it, really observing it closely with an open heart.

Today, it happened for me again at The Mag. The image was
from Norman Rockwell, much more illustration oriented than I am used to writing
from but something in the image yanked at my heart and after reading Tess’
response my fingers simply had to leap in as well.

Waking up to the possibilities of subjects within works of
art today reminded me when the muse leaves the building there are places
outside the building I can explore and see what there is to see, to feel, to
smell, to touch and to be touched, smelled, felt and seen by.

Curious about other modern ekphrastic poets?

Here are several places to read ekphrastic poetry as well as learn more and be inspired.

Sometimes when I work on images for my blog, I search for
art that is not subject to copyright, usually older images. I have found many
that beg to be written and re-experienced and re-imagined via my pen. The image I used today is Matisse - The Joy of Life. I have used it when I teach a writing session for students in a college Art Appreciation class. They are very inspired by this image - as am I.

Perhaps there are images waiting out there for you as well
both in OctPoWriMo and beyond.